


7 Ways To Come Out In The Pegasus Galaxy

by Charlotte_Lancer



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Male Character, Blanket Permission, But not quite, Coming Out, DADT Repeal, Don't Ask Don't Tell, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Not Beta Read, Telepathy, Time Travel, Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:07:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26573467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlotte_Lancer/pseuds/Charlotte_Lancer
Summary: Or, despite the fact that Sheppard had never had a problem keeping things to himself on Earth, the Pegasus Galaxy itself seems to be against the very concept of secrets.
Relationships: Implied Samantha Carter/Jack O'Neill, John Sheppard/Elizabeth Weir, John Sheppard/Original Male Character(s), One Sided Aiden Ford/John Sheppard
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	7 Ways To Come Out In The Pegasus Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

> See end note for more in-depth warnings.

Sheppard never expected that he’d have any more trouble keeping his secret in Atlantis than he’d had on Earth. In well over a decade of service, no one, from his closest comrades to the strictest superiors, suspected he was anything other than 100% straight, so Atlantis should have been no challenge. In fact, aside from Colonel Sumner, Pegasus was decidedly lacking in superior officers who hated him and wanted him gone, so by all logic it should have been even easier.

Pegasus, of course, hated logic, so it wasn’t long before his expectations were thoroughly broken.

...................................................................................

Teyla was the one who found out first, barely a year into the expedition. Sheppard is caught between annoyance with the unpredictabilities of the Pegasus galaxy, fear that someone _knows_ , and relief that, if someone had to find out, at least that someone is Teyla.

They had gone to broker a trade deal with a planet they had visited briefly several times before, and the team had been invited into a communal hall to share in a traditional beverage after coming to an agreement. McKay and Ford were on the far end of the long table, being accosted by small children fascinated with various parts of their kit, and were thus thankfully out of hearing range when it became apparent that the "ale" was perhaps more than it seemed. Sheppard felt relaxed in an artificial way, not dissimilar to the first stages of being put under anesthesia.

He bit the tip of his tongue to stop himself from speaking, and forced his attention to the rest of his team. A quick glance showed that none of them seemed visibly affected, but both Ford and Teyla looked at him with concern as he checked them over.

"Do you feel alright, Major?" Teyla asked in a hushed tone, "You are looking unwell."

"I think there's something in these drinks, some sort of sedative, or inhibition lowerer, or something. It's too bad, really, it tastes pretty nice. Reminds me of the stuff my ex's roommate tried to brew back in college. Did you know-" Teyla cut him off by laying a hand on his forearm. 

"Major, I believe you should stop talking until we are able to reverse the effects this beverage is having on you."

"You're probably right. But what-" He bit his tongue again, grimacing at the unwanted compulsion to tell Teyla far too many things that he would rather keep to himself. 

Teyla quickly made an apology to their hosts, explained that the Major was not feeling well, and said that she would escort him back to the Gate. The host was understanding, and wished him good health.

Another quick word with Ford and McKay- leave soon but not soon enough to cause offense, don't eat or drink anything new- and he and Teyla set off for the gate.

Once they were well away from the village, Sheppard unclenched his teeth. He could taste blood, and he was sure his tongue would be swollen soon.

"CIA would love that stuff. A truth serum that actually works. Probably for the best we don't have it on Earth, I'd hate to think what the bad guys could do with it. On the other hand, I do prefer drinks to getting tortured, so who knows? Did I tell you my ex used to brew craft beers? He could never quite get the ratios right, everything tasted too happy, but it was always higher proof than anyone else could do so we drank it anyway. In fact, the first time we had sex, he-"

"You should not be telling me these things, Major." Teyla was looking at him with concern, and Sheppard thought through what he had just said. His head felt a bit fuzzy, and it was difficult to figure out what he'd said wrong. 

"Right, of course. I overstepped, you don't need to hear those kinds of details. I could tell you more about the brewing process if you want. I used to love listening to his explanations."

"John, I am not concerned about impropriety. I am familiar enough with your culture's rules to know that what you have said is enough to warrant punishment in your military. You must not speak like this in Atlantis." She considered for a moment. "Perhaps I should not have taken you from the hall. If this is merely an effect of the drink, it may wear off with time."

“How come it doesn’t seem to have had any effect on you, Ford, or McKay. You had just as much as I did. Hey, maybe it’s something to do with the ATA gene! We should see if we can get a sample for the labs, or they’ll never let us hear the end of it.”

“Perhaps we will be able to on our next visit,” Teyla agreed.

For the rest of the walk home, Teyla managed to keep the conversation on the labs and similarly mundane subjects, expertly steering him away from any topics that held the potential to reveal more secrets.

By the time they made it to Medical, the effects had worn down to the point where this may have been unnecessary, but Sheppard was grateful nonetheless. And, because he was still at least partially under the effects of a borderline truth-serum, he told Teyla as much several times more than he meant to.

Ultimately, after Medical did every sort of test they could, and then a few more that he was sure they invented on the spot, it turned out that the drink did have a compound that reacted strongly with the ATA gene, and caused a strong inhibition-lowering effect that was thankfully temporary.

Sheppard made a note to assign a team without the ATA gene to take the next mission on that planet, and considered himself lucky that only Teyla had been around to hear his ramblings.

..................................................................................................

Sheppard is never quite sure if Ford knows. If he does, he doesn’t let on outright, but there are strange glances whenever Sheppard is being flirted with offworld, and Sheppard can’t figure out whether he should be putting this down to Ford being jealous of Sheppard, or Ford knowing more than he should.

…

By the time Sheppard figures out that maybe it wasn’t _Sheppard_ that Ford was jealous of, it’s far too late to do anything about it, not that he had even wanted to. Sheppard isn’t in the habit of fraternizing with his direct subordinates, especially ones who are a solid decade younger than him. Still, if things had been different the idea might have made a nice fantasy, something to think about in bed when no company was available, but the circumstances as they are now have ruled that out without impunity. It’s one thing to get off to an idle fantasy of a coworker you have no intent of pursuing, but it’s a bit harder to get off to someone who may or may not be your enemy on any given day, or who could be dead without you ever finding out.

  
........................................................................................................

Elizabeth Weir is the only person he tells on purpose. They’ve been flirting with each other for months, and after a particularly wild day, they fall into bed together, high on adrenaline and victory and survival.

Elizabeth doesn’t have condoms in her quarters, and neither of them feel like making the trip to either medical or John’s quarters to get them.

“I’ve got an IUD,” she says, still tangled with him on the bed, “and birth control and Plan B,” she slides a hand under his shirt, trailing it up to rest against his chest, “and a clean bill of health for every disease known to the SGC.”

“Me too,” he says, and she raises an eyebrow at him. “The health part, not the birth control,” and he reaches behind her to undo her bra, and she reaches down to undo his pants, and soon neither of them are talking, too focused on pleasure and proximity for words to be necessary.

Every sense is heightened by the adrenaline, by the thrill, by the sheer length of time since either of them has had this, and the intensity is enough that neither of them lasts long. They ride out their orgasms and collapse next to each other on the bed, sated and exhausted as the adrenaline rush finally starts to fade.

“I usually last longer than that,” John says, half asleep already.

“I know what you mean. The last time I finished that quickly was Freshman year of college,” Elizabeth replies, tugging the blanket over them. She curls against his side, and puts her arm around his waist.

“Same here,” he says, pulling her in closer to him. “Except it was Junior year.”

“I hate to admit it, but I don’t even remember his name,” she continues, yawning, and Sheppard hesitates for half a second before agreeing again, this time not making any clarification to his answer.

If she’s surprised she hides it well, no sign of shock evident on her face. Then she leans in to whisper a secret of her own in his ear, and soon they’re swapping secrets and kisses late into the night, not a care in the world.

By the time they fall asleep, so tired that John barely manages to think the lights off before his eyes close, they know every detail of each other, every piece and memory that makes them who they are, and somehow he’s more content with that than he ever thought he’d be.

They don’t bring up their late-night discussion the next day, or any other day, and to the best of Sheppard’s knowledge she keeps his secrets, all of them, for the rest of her life. He swears to do the same for hers.

.............................................................................................................

Colonel Carter finds out when she and Sheppard get zapped into the past by an Ancient device and promptly come face to face with a 20 year old Sheppard on a date with his college boyfriend. Sheppard doesn’t know why it couldn’t have sent them back a little less and stuck them in front of him on a date with Nancy. He’d have even happily taken the teasing that would have resulted if it had sent them back even further to see him getting to second base with the prom queen in the back of her dad’s convertible, but no, it had to send them back just in time to see his younger self kissing another guy.

“I can explain,” he says, and she raises an eyebrow.

It turns out he really can’t explain.

“Well, we’ll have to coordinate what we put in our reports, but it shouldn’t be too hard to claim we got sent back to my past instead of yours,” she says.

He nods, glad that she doesn’t plan to put any of this into the official record. While a report claiming time travel as evidence would never hold up in a case against him, he’s glad nonetheless that said report won’t exist at all.

They find a bench in a nearby park, and while they sit waiting to be zapped back to their own time they work out every detail of what they’re actually going to tell the SGC.

..........................................................................................................

Lorne finds out when he comes back from an off-world mission with temporary _alien telepathy_ , because of course that’s a thing that happens now. Lorne is trying his best to control it enough to not read the minds of everyone nearby, but apparently he hasn’t quite got the hang of blocking things out entirely yet.

The telepathy was apparently a gift from some planet as a thank you for something that Lorne and his team had done, but Sheppard isn’t paying too much attention to the details. Instead, in an attempt to prevent Lorne from accidentally picking up anything personal from his mind, he spends the entire debrief concentrating intensely on the proper procedure for landing a helicopter in a sandstorm.

Unfortunately, the telepathy doesn’t seem to work in any sort of order, and Lorne later tells him that what he heard instead was a half-forgotten recipe for pancakes, some geometric sequences, and, oh, because the Pegasus galaxy apparently has a vested interest in making sure Sheppard can never keep any secrets, a full list of the names of every person, male and female, that Sheppard has ever dated.

Lorne swears that the secret is safe with him, and from a lack of options Sheppard is forced to take Lorne at his word. He doesn’t think Lorne would tell, but just in case he spends some time checking what counts as acceptable evidence for UCMJ violation reports, and considers whether it would be suspicious if he were to ask out one of the female scientists.

......................................................................................................

Sheppard has absolutely no idea when or how Ronon finds out, but the day the announcement that DADT has been repealed comes through the databurst Ronon first congratulates him, and then offers to set him up with a male scientist from Sweden who had come over in the most recent batch and who apparently has enough of a crush on Sheppard that it’s common knowledge to everyone but Sheppard himself.

Sheppard thanks Ronon for the congratulations, says he’ll have to think about the date, and then spends the next two hours in his office reading over all the new personnel files and trying to figure out who it could be.

When he gets to the personnel file of one Dr. Mikael Wallin, Anthropologist and former helicopter pilot in the Swedish Army, Sheppard spends another two hours planning both how to ask him out and where to take him if he says yes.

..............................................................................................

Somehow for all his claims of genius, McKay is the absolute last to know, and even then only because of _more time travel_. The expedition is eight years in at this point, and Sheppard is intensely glad that DADT had been repealed a short time beforehand, because McKay’s ability to keep a secret is not one he wants to trust his career to. Also, Sheppard is seriously starting to hate whichever Ancient thought all these time travel devices were a good idea.

A malfunction with an Ancient device they find in an unexplored part of the city is what does it, pulling a John Sheppard from several years in the future straight back to their time. The future!Sheppard is nearly identical to himself, probably annoyed at the situations, and definately stuck with them until McKay and the scientists can figure out a way to repair the machine that until now they had thought to be a portable transporter.

He’s also sporting a wedding band that the present Sheppard is definitely not, and it’s only a matter of minutes before McKay spots it and starts asking questions that neither Sheppard really wants answered.

“When exactly did you find the time to get married? And to who? I’ve never even seen you date!” McKay’s face is comical, a weird combination of confusion and indignation, and Sheppard has to bite back a laugh at the sight. Rodney narrows his eyes. “It’s not Colonel Carter, is it?”

And now Sheppard _is_ laughing, because apparently McKay is the only person on the planet who doesn’t know about her and O’Neill.

The future him is hastily denying any involvement with Carter, and after the fourth repetition McKay finally seems to believe him. McKay then suggests a number of other increasingly ridiculous possibilities, including Nancy and at least two women Sheppard’s never even met, who are all similarly denied until McKay finally runs out of names to list.

“Well then who is it? Who else could _possibly_ be left?! ” McKay’s eyes are wide with frustration, and Sheppard can tell that his older self is dragging this out for amusement’s sake at this point.

“You know, McKay, there _is_ the possibility that it’s someone you haven’t met yet, seeing as the answer to your first question, which you seem to have forgotten about, is 2014.” His older self was enjoying this far too much, and he himself was torn between wanting the answer and wanting to shut himself up as quickly as possible.

“It’s 2012 now! You didn’t elope with someone, did you?” McKay, like most of Atalantis, is unaware of Sheppard’s relationship with the new Anthroplogist; the whole thing was still pretty new, both he and Dr. Wallin valued their privacy, and Sheppard was perfectly content to put off the inevitable ‘why an anthropologist’ interrogation for as long as possible. Sheppard was pretty sure that the only people who _did_ know were Ronon, Teyla, and Mikael’s younger sisters.

Of course, Sheppard probably shouldn’t be making assumptions after four dates- maybe McKay’s right, and he did elope with some woman neither of them have met yet. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time he’d jumped into a major commitment, personal or professional, and it probably wouldn’t be the last time either.

“You’ll find out soon enough, McKay. Wouldn’t want to mess with the timeline, now, would we?” The older Sheppard gives an almost imperceptible look to his present self, and he gives an equally subtle nod in return. “Besides, I never said it was a woman.”

McKay is spluttering, and his older self is laughing, and based on the way-too-interested looks on the other scientist faces this everyone who didn’t already know will by morning- the scientists gossip more than any other group of people he’s ever known, and the Marines are almost as bad. But then Sheppard is laughing too, half amusement and half relief at the secret being out without him actually having to say anything, and it all feels half-unreal and way too sudden but somehow strangely alright as well.

He looks down at his own ringless hand, thinks about the way things have turned out, and decides, for once, he’s not too worried about what the future holds.

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings:
> 
> 1\. Forced Outing: A bisexual male military character is outed against his will due to sci-fi shenanigans, multiple times. He does not face any consequences as a result of this, but does briefly worry over the possibility each time.
> 
> 2\. Slightly Unsafe Sex: A male and a female have sex without the use of a condom. Both participants are free of any STDs, and the female is on a highly effective birth control regimen.
> 
> 3\. Implied Underage Drinking: A character reminisces about beer brewed by a college boyfriend. The character in question is later revealed to have been 20 at this time, which is under the legal drinking age in the country where this memory is set.


End file.
